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Star (Christchurch), Issue 7967, 22 March 1904, Page 3

Smithson : " Wise oven make proverbs, but fools repeat them." Mias Pert : " What wise man made that one?" . Divorce does not seem popular or necessary in Canada. It is stated that only 116 divorces have been granted in Qanada in the last twenty years. The town of Gillengham, on the Medway, which waß lately incorporated as a borough, has some claim to notoriety as being the birthplace of William Adams, one of the most famous sailors that England ever produced. It was. Adams who discovered Japan in 1600 after unparalleled adventur c and hardships in the Charity, the only surviving ship out of a fleet of five that set. out. Adams (says " The King and His Army arid Navy ") not only; discovered >Japan, but was respon*sible for giving its' then Emperor, Igeyatiu, the first notion of a Japanese nayy — a notion which has borne fruit in one of the world's great facts of to-day. The only blot upon the fair fame of William Adams is that, when the Emperor found his kribwledge of " geometry and mathematics " «o valuable that he would not let him go honwj) to his wife and children, Adams was weak enough to fall a' victim to the charms of another wife, a Japanese, who lies* buried with him on a hill-top overlooking the; harbour of Yokosuka.